25 Writers

I picked this up at James Reasoner's blog Rough Edges (link on side panel).
So I'm going to do the same and list 25 writers who have influenced me over the years. There is no set pattern nor an explanation other than I still read these writers books and they can be found in my bookcase.
In no particular order:
1. Frank C. Robertson
2. Erle Stanley Gardner
3. Leslie Charteris
4. Jack Kerouac
5. D.H.Lawrence
6. J.D.Sallinger
7. Alan Sillitoe
8. Louis L'Amour
9. Oakley Hall
10. John Braine
11. Francis Durbridge
12. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
13. Jack Trevor Story
14. Nevil Shute
15. Colin Wilson
16. Alan Hunter
17. Grace Metallious
18. Amelia Bean
19. George G. Gilman
20. Nell Dunn
21. O. Henry
22. Tennessee Williams
23. Erskine Caldwell
24. Elleston Trevor
25. Peter Cheyney

These authors cover a wide range from detective novels, westerns, war and domestic fiction. There are no modern authors on the list but that's only because I couldn't make a list of 25 writers. There are western writers like David Whitehead, Jory Sherman and James Reasoner who through their books or just 'talking' to them have shed some influence on me. Most detective novels had left me cold with the exception of James McGee's excellent Hawkwood novels.
However, though the list belongs to writers of the past they were the ones who fired my imagination and, unlike writers today, they did not have to bother about political correctness or have to deal with the sensitiveness that is prevelant today.